Paris attacker is convicted
PARIS — The lone survivor of a team of Islamic State extremists was convicted, Wednesday, of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the 2015 bombings and shootings across Paris that killed 130 people in the deadliest peacetime attacks in French history.
The special court also convicted 19 other men involved in the assault following a ninemonth trial.
Chief suspect Salah Abdeslam was found guilty of murder and attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise. The court found that his explosives vest malfunctioned, dismissing his argument that he ditched the vest because he decided not to follow through with his part of the attack, on the night of Nov. 13, 2015.
The killings at the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium led to intensified French military action against extremists abroad and a security crackdown at home.
Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Belgian with Moroccan roots, was given France’s most severe sentence possible. The sentence of life without parole has only been pronounced four times in the country — for crimes related to rape and murder of minors.
Of the defendants besides Abdeslam, 18 were given various terrorism-related convictions, and one was convicted on a lesser fraud charge. They were given punishments ranging from suspended sentences to life in prison.
Arthur Denouveaux, who survived the Bataclan massacre, appeared tired but relieved the trial was over.
“I hope to be able to put the word ‘victim’ into the past,” he said.
“When things like this happen you have no repair possible. That’s why you have justice,” he said, even if “justice can’t do everything.”
He added:”It puts an exclamation point at the end of it.”
During the trial, Abdeslam proclaimed his radicalism, wept, apologized to victims and pleaded with judges to forgive his “mistakes.”
For victims’ families and survivors of the attacks, the trial has been excruciating yet crucial in their quest for justice and closure.